cover image What Grandmas Do Best What Grandpas Do Best

What Grandmas Do Best What Grandpas Do Best

Laura Joffe Numeroff. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, $14.95 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-689-80552-3

This companion to the immensely likable What Mommies Do Best/ What Daddies Do Best is another two-in-one book: after finishing ""What Grandmas Do Best,"" readers can flip the book over to find ""What Grandpas Do Best."" Again, Numeroff's straightforward text is identical for both segments (both grandmas and grandpas can ""play hide-and-seek, make you a hat, and take you for a walk""). The fun lies in Munsinger's magnificently anthropomorphized animals, and the way each grandparent puts his or her spin on the words: Grandma Cat knits her grandkitten a fetching snow hat, while Grandpa Guinea Pig fashions a chapeau out of newspapers, tape and glue. Perhaps because her lead characters are senior citizens, this book is more subdued in tone than its predecessor; Numeroff seems not to have mined her considerable imagination as deeply for comic contrasts (both expected and unexpected) between male and female grandparents. Still, every spread radiates with the gentle and abiding affection that connects the generations. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)